Natural sounds may be the best way to add depth and realism to your films. Think sounds of wind, tree branches, animals, insects, cars whizzing by, etc. Natural sound (also called ‘nat sounds’) are sounds that are produced in their actual setting - a.k.a., nature.
‘Polar pattern directional’ by Galak76 – self-made, Adobe Illustrator. Now, perhaps it would be helpful to overview those terms. Though there are several different types of patterns, three common examples are (from most to least focused) are shotgun, cardioid, and omnidirectional. In other words, this is the audio the mic captures in relation to where you’re pointing it. Microphone polar (pickup) patterns are how different microphones pick up sounds around their central axis. Paired with a wireless transmitter and receiver, lav mics can be used to record audio wirelessly while staying mostly or completely hidden if need be. Lavalier microphones are small microphones generally placed on the body, such as on the lapel of a jacket, in your talent’s hair, or underneath clothing. For example, a bag of corn starch rustled in your hands hands sounds eerily similar to footsteps in snow - and now you don’t have to stand out in the cold to record that sound. Foley sound effects can either be made from the objects that appear in your film, or from completely different sources. The result is having to sync sound in post, which can be done either manually, like with a slate marker, or by using software, like Red Giant’s PluralEyes.įoley is the recreation of noises synced to picture.
You could use another sound recorder to capture the audio separately from the visual shots, for example. These can be the actors’ voices, sounds of footsteps, or a tinkling piano.ĭual-system recording is sound that was not recorded directly into the camera. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commonsĭiegetic sounds arise from the subjects or objects that appear on screen, or are implied to be present within your film’s world. ‘Polar pattern cardioid’ by Galak76 – self-made, Adobe Illustrator. These are great for speech-related uses, either for voice-overs or - everyone’s favorite - podcasts. Cardioid microphones will pick up most of their signal in one direction, rejecting most of the noise in the other directions but still picking up some ambient audio around the scene. This is roughly the shape of this pickup pattern.
While this isn’t an exhaustive list (there are a lot of audio-related terms!), it’s a great primer on some of the more prevalent phrases for you to tuck away in your knowledge bank.Ĭardioid microphones are best explained by their shape: a heart. Let’s dive into common audio terms that are important for all video creators to know. Luckily, there are also some really great tools and resources available to aspiring video and sound editors of every skill level as digital technology has transformed what used to be a quite archaic task into one which can be done with some simple clicks of your mouse. In fact, for many video editors today having skills in each of these practices is almost expected.
Sound mixing has to do more with audio levels and balancing everything out for the final “mix” for a project.Īnd while on the majority of big budget and professional video projects these two roles are done by different professionals and companies, in the world of modern DIY video production these two terms and roles are often rolled into one. Sound editing has to do with the editing, recording and recreating of sound and audio clips and effects. And while these two terms are actually quite similar and share many mutual facets, they are indeed different roles which require different expertise. sound mixingĪnother question that usually comes up when one first starts off in video and sound editing has to do with defining the difference between sound editing and sound mixing. Sound editors do more than just edit too, they are often tasked with creating sounds on their own or also recording or re-recording audio or dialogue to help with the video editing process overall. However, for our purposes of looking at audio as it pertains to video, sound editing is usually thought of as separate from video editing - although they are often done (at least initially) at the same time. This isn’t a video-exclusive term either as there are many sound editors and professionals who work with audio and sound outside of video. Sound editing is a basic term which we use to describe any sort of editing of sound or audio files. So, let’s start with some basic definitions before we dive deeper into some softwares and techniques.